394 
THE THREE AGES OF SOCIETT. 
fcary live in a state of hostility to the monks, whom they 
were intended to protect. Everything presents a melancholy 
picture of misery and privation. We shall soon have occa- 
sion to examine more closely that state of man, which ia 
vaunted as a state of nature, by those who inhabit towns. 
In the second region, in the plains and pasture-grounds,? 
food is extremely abundant, but has little variety. Although* 1 
more advanced in civilization, the people beyond the circle! 
ot some scattered towns arc not less isolated from one! 
another. At sight of their dwellings, partly covered with* 
skins and leather, it might be supposed that, far from being 
fixed, they are scarcely encamped in those vast plains which 
extend to the horizon. A griculture, which alone consolidates 
the bases, and strengthens the bonds of society, occupies the 
third zone, the shore, and especially the hot and temperate 
valleys among the mountains near the sea. 
It may be objected, that in other parts of Spanish and 
Portuguese America, wherever we can trace the progressive 
development of civilization, we find the three ages of society 
combined. But it must be remembered that the position of 
the three zones, that of the forests, the pastures, and the 
cultivated land, is not everywhere the same, and that it is 
nowhere so regular as in Venezuela. It ia not always from 
the coast to the interior, that population, commercial in- 
dustry, and intellectual improvement, diminish. In Mexico, 
Peru, and Quito, the table-lands and central mountains 
possess the greatest number of cultivators, the most nu- 
merous towns situated near to each other, and the most 
ancient institutions. We even find, that, in the kingdom of 
Buenos Ayres, the region of pasturage, known by the name 
of the Pampas, lies between the isolated part of Buenos Ayres 
and the great mass ot Indian cultivators, who inhabit the 
Cordilleras oi Charcas, La Paz, and Potosi. This circum- 
stance gives birth to a diversity of interests, in the same 
country, between the people of the interior and those who 
inhabit the coasts. 
To form an accurate idea of those vast provinces which 
have been gov erned for ages, almost like separate states, by 
viceroys and captains-general, we must fix our attention at 
once on several points. We must distinguish the parts ot 
Spanish America opposite to Asia from those on the shores 
